Well this is the best album ever, so I don't know how I'm gonna choose. NO wait, of course I know. The correct answer is THE TRUE WHEEL.
we saw the lovers, the modern lovers....
― dan selzer, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:03 (sixteen years ago) link
Third Uncle
― stephen, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Dan, you have answered correctly. "The True Wheel" is Eno's finest TTM moment. Particularly big shout-out for Manzanera's classic one-note guitar solo...
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:31 (sixteen years ago) link
Tough one. "Burning Airlines," though "Back in Judy's Jungle" gives me goofy lolz and almost gets the vote.
― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 22:45 (sixteen years ago) link
"Back In Judy's Jungle", followed ever so closely by "Mother Whale Eyeless" (love it when Phil Collins enters in one channel towards the end with the whirlwind drumming) and "China My China" if the typewritter/guitar freakout middle wasn't so protracted.
― Joe, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 00:22 (sixteen years ago) link
It is almost impossible, but I went with "The True Wheel."
― talrose, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 01:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Classic all the way through. I'm picking "Fat Lady", though I doubt it will win. I love them barritone saxes.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 01:32 (sixteen years ago) link
"Third Uncle," but great great album all around.
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 01:41 (sixteen years ago) link
title track
― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 02:31 (sixteen years ago) link
True Wheel
― iago g., Wednesday, 3 October 2007 02:33 (sixteen years ago) link
Third Uncle ...err... thirded.
― Trayce, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 02:33 (sixteen years ago) link
i am heartened by all of the "mother whale eyeless" love here -- i thought that i was alone, that song usually is overlooked in favor of "third uncle," "fat lady of limbourg" or "the true wheel."
that said, i voted for "the true wheel."
― Eisbaer, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 03:07 (sixteen years ago) link
i also heart "china my china" not just for the typewriter/guitar freak-out but also for the weird synth loops and guitar feedback at the end.
― Eisbaer, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 03:09 (sixteen years ago) link
"Back in Judy's Jungle"
― marmotwolof, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 03:10 (sixteen years ago) link
Love that kinda yawning guitar bit repeated along with crazy feedback bits on "China My China," not to mention how it opens out of radio static — the pseudo-mundanity breaks out into something transcendent by song's end. As a kid it got me all excited with this you've-left-earth feeling, and then the album let me gracefully down with the title track, thinking of which almost makes me want to cry somehow. Nostalgia for something that never happened, probably.
xxxpost
― eatandoph, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 03:12 (sixteen years ago) link
'the true wheel' is like the giddy high point of all this early eno stuff. the last two songs sound so exhausted compared to it!
― haitch, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 04:39 (sixteen years ago) link
Voted "True Wheel," though I've found myself listening to "The Great Pretender" a lot, and it was originally my least favorite. I hate not to vote for "Taking Tiger Mountain" - it sounds like an old man, reflecting back on the one great accomplishment of his life.
― clotpoll, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 05:55 (sixteen years ago) link
Yo, it's the title track all the way. The 5.5 most beautiful minutes in popular music!
― Davey D, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 07:33 (sixteen years ago) link
For me, the "best tune" concept doesn't fit this album. If one song's an apple, another's an orange, knowwhatImean? I will say that "Mother Whale Eyeless" and "The True Wheel" are the only two I had to listen to again to remember how they go.
― Rich Smörgasbord, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 12:52 (sixteen years ago) link
"Burning Airlines"
― aldo, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 12:56 (sixteen years ago) link
I remember China, My China, being my favorite, so that's what I'm gonna vote, but this reminds me to listen to the album again when I get home.
― I eat cannibals, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 17:35 (sixteen years ago) link
The True Wheel. Eno's best song.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:24 (sixteen years ago) link
the one that has the "...and this is the sound that they heard" followed by bizarro synth solo
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:31 (sixteen years ago) link
That's "Back In Judy's Jungle". For a long time I had a hard time getting into this album, because I didn't like that song at all, and it's the second song on the album. I'm glad to read something about what's good about that song, because I just listened to it again and thought it was terrible, a real momentum killer after the first song. Luckily it picks up again with "The Fat Lady of Limbourg".
― Euler, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:38 (sixteen years ago) link
oh I like the whole vibe of it - the plucky British lads going off to a foreign land to be massacred, whistling all the while. Its like a psychedelic war movie.
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:39 (sixteen years ago) link
still hard to argue that anything is better than the True Wheel on this one
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:41 (sixteen years ago) link
right now I'm thinking "Great Pretender" or "Third Uncle," need to give this one a full relisten though. Awesome album.
― Curt1s Stephens, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:48 (sixteen years ago) link
True Wheel which has the greatest lyrics ever.
― Bill in Chicago, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 19:20 (sixteen years ago) link
^^^ cosign
― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 19:45 (sixteen years ago) link
the true wheel easy
― sleep, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 19:55 (sixteen years ago) link
The True Wheel
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 20:50 (sixteen years ago) link
I played air piano to it at a bar!
wow!
― da croupier, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 20:54 (sixteen years ago) link
"China My China", 'cause you can sit at your computer keyboard and play along during the typewriter solo. But I can't overlook "Third Uncle" (Velvets add a 2nd drummer and go prog) or the engulfed-and-consumed-alive-by-aphids climax of "Great Pretender" or Phil Manzanera.
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 21:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Thursday, 4 October 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
I was just listening to this album! This is really hard. So many good songs. But "Burning Airlines" it is.
― Tom D., Friday, 5 October 2007 12:34 (sixteen years ago) link
I voted for Third Uncle, which I didn't even realise was a Brian Eno song til I heard this album - I have the Bauhaus cover but didn't know it was a cover.
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 5 October 2007 13:26 (sixteen years ago) link
"didn't even realise was a Brian Eno song til I heard this album "
ahead of it's time,like many other eno songs from that period. nobody sounded like that in the early 70s.
― Zeno, Friday, 5 October 2007 13:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Friday, 5 October 2007 23:01 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, 67 votes is about twice what I expected.
― Rock Hardy, Saturday, 6 October 2007 00:16 (sixteen years ago) link
sratisfying results at last.
― Zeno, Saturday, 6 October 2007 00:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Results like this make me question my typical deference for the ILM crowd.
― christoff, Monday, 8 October 2007 14:26 (sixteen years ago) link
You pollsters and your faith in "results." So what? I voted for Mother Whale Eyeless.
― Trip Maker, Monday, 8 October 2007 14:47 (sixteen years ago) link
Too late to change my vote now. "Mother Whale Eyeless" and "Taking Tiger Mountain" both deserve far more than 4 votes.
― Tom D., Tuesday, 9 October 2007 08:40 (sixteen years ago) link
Other favorites now that the results are in are obv. "Burning Airlines" but also "China My China" and "Great Pretender." What a great album.
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 9 October 2007 14:25 (sixteen years ago) link
props to everyone that voted 'fat lady of limbourg'!!
― poortheatre, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 07:59 (sixteen years ago) link
I agree with the top 2, but "Mother Whale Eyeless" should have been higher.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 15:27 (sixteen years ago) link
if u think "cyndi tells me" is the best in "warm jets" you will love "tiger mountain" more - cause it's a little poppier and lighter,like "cyndi" is.
This is true in my case.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 30 April 2008 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link
"Taking Tiger Mountain" – 5:33 3 votes
somedays (like today) i like it more than "the true wheel"
― ▒▒▓▓████▓▓▒▒▓▓████▓▓▒▒▓▓████▓▓▒▒▓▓████▓▓▒▒▓▓████▓▓▒▒ (Steve Shasta), Thursday, 6 November 2008 03:18 (fifteen years ago) link
wow, Sabbath Vol. 4, Pisces Iscariot, now this...ILM has been all about my favourite albums lately..
Was gonna post some predictable shit about how MWE deserved more votes but the True Wheel def. was the winner, but that seems to be consensus around here, so...
True Wheel sounds like Kyuss to me.
― goofus vs. gallant (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 6 November 2008 04:51 (fifteen years ago) link
<3 to you from america, imago. i'm sorry you're having a hard time.
― tɹi.ʃɪp (Treeship), Tuesday, 12 November 2013 00:38 (ten years ago) link
cheers fella. it's getting better every day ^_^
let's see who can finish their book first k
― imago, Tuesday, 12 November 2013 00:39 (ten years ago) link
spider & i was lovely but ttm (the song) is fucken cosmic. can't even begin
― imago, Tuesday, 12 November 2013 00:40 (ten years ago) link
The title track is so great EXCEPT for when that guitar line does that annoying chromatic descending melody rather than the part where it blends magnificently into the piano melody.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 12 November 2013 02:13 (ten years ago) link
no way
― tɹi.ʃɪp (Treeship), Tuesday, 12 November 2013 03:22 (ten years ago) link
I've been enjoying the living hell out of Mother Whale Eyeless lately. I never gave it much of a chance because of all the other great songs on this album but it's so great. This whole album has pleasantly odd/never boring lyrics.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 16:45 (ten years ago) link
There's a pie shop in the sky
― jmm, Saturday, 4 January 2014 17:05 (ten years ago) link
Ha I just listened to mother whale yesterday. It's my favorite on the record. When the boppy organ barges in my happiness is unstoppable.
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 17:48 (ten years ago) link
Try listening to Mother Sky --> Mother Whale Eyeless. It's my new recipe for exuberance.
― mambo jumbo (La Lechera), Saturday, 4 January 2014 17:56 (ten years ago) link
no i might break something
― yes, i have seen the documentary (Jon Lewis), Saturday, 4 January 2014 18:16 (ten years ago) link
Back in Judy's Jungle and True Wheel for me
― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 4 January 2014 18:26 (ten years ago) link
she clutches the trayand then we talk just like a kitchen soufflénothing ventured, nothing gained
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Friday, 10 October 2014 16:09 (nine years ago) link
When my colleagues from Shenzhen were here last month we took them walking around Chelsea and when we went into the hipster artist flea market mother whale eyeless was playing
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 10 October 2014 17:35 (nine years ago) link
that's awesome. did it add to everyone's enjoyment of the flea market?
i have been listening to this album on repeat in my car for at least a week and i have a new appreciation for 'the great pretender' and also decided that 'third uncle' was so named because of its relationship to mother sky. it sounds kinda like robot mother sky on speed.
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Friday, 10 October 2014 17:56 (nine years ago) link
Is it kitchen soufflé or kitchen-sink play?
― JoeStork, Friday, 10 October 2014 18:01 (nine years ago) link
i have no idea -- that's why i posted itit totally sounds like kitchen soufflé to me and i enjoy the lol wut eno-ness of it
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:03 (nine years ago) link
I've never managed to catch half the words in that song and I've listened to it a billion times
― lool at the herrlich (wins), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:03 (nine years ago) link
i have listened to it a billion times too and only just now heard kitchen souffléi love how he uses the sound of words rather than their meaning and STILL manages to write songs that kinda make enough senseit's a technique that is close to my <3
― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:07 (nine years ago) link
just relistened to this, I loove the part where it goes "and this is the sound that they heard..." on "Back in Judy's Jungle"
are there any other albums remotely like this one?
― Maggie killed Quagmire (collest baby ever) (frogbs), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:10 (nine years ago) link
There are moments in the first 4 Kevin ayers that sound akin. Also search "A Stitch in Time" off one of Anthony Moore's solo records, very very tiger mtn
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:18 (nine years ago) link
were I to vote now it would probably be for BIJJ
but there is not one track here that is anything other than excellent
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:23 (nine years ago) link
argh who am I kidding, title track
idk
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Friday, 10 October 2014 18:24 (nine years ago) link
pulled this out tonight for the first time in years. i'm usually an AGW guy. i'd forgotten just how awesome this disc is. pretty sure i voted for the fat lady of limbourg in the poll. tonight, maybe mother whale eyeless or china my china.
― that's not my post, Tuesday, 1 November 2016 06:01 (seven years ago) link
Now we're on the telephoneMaking final arrangementsding ding
― frogbs, Tuesday, 1 November 2016 14:37 (seven years ago) link
"Taking Tiger Mountain" – 5:33 3
this is sick and wrong!
― rip van wanko, Tuesday, 1 November 2016 14:44 (seven years ago) link
I still listen to this all the time, but this thread revival has inspired me to listen to it again.
― Aristotle error-admitting beer (_Rudipherous_), Tuesday, 1 November 2016 15:21 (seven years ago) link
Everything getting a vote except "Put a Straw Under Baby" = OTM
― a passing spacecadet, Tuesday, 1 November 2016 15:26 (seven years ago) link
mother whale eyeless still takes it for me. maybe the most roxy-sounding thing on here. nothing beats the switchup 2 minutes in ("In my town, there is a raincoat under a tree..."), which i've raved about elsewhere on ilx i think. one of eno's career best moments imo
― I look forward to hearing from you shortly, (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 1 November 2016 15:32 (seven years ago) link
it really blows my mind that this is from 1974 - same year as like Relayer, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Rock Bottom, etc. etc...just sounds like it's from a totally different world
― frogbs, Tuesday, 1 November 2016 15:41 (seven years ago) link
put a straw under baby is great and deserves at least a few votes
― na (NA), Tuesday, 1 November 2016 15:52 (seven years ago) link
yes, if only for the Robert Wyatt backing vocals
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 1 November 2016 16:02 (seven years ago) link
So was it ever unveiled who Randi and The Pyramids are? (credited w/ (backing) vocals on 'The True Wheel' ["we are the 801!"]? I know he named her/the lot after a girl he was seeing back then and says he dreamt up the name, but who is the woman singing that?
― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:36 (six years ago) link
Multitracked Polly Eltes?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:47 (six years ago) link
Could be! We know she's on Mother Whale Eyeless, but I've never come across any source attributing the True Wheel vocal to her?
― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:50 (six years ago) link
― frogbs, Tuesday, November 1, 2016 11:41 AM (two years ago)
Spot on! Feel like this album is its own genre.
― Wally P. Doyle, Wednesday, 30 October 2019 16:58 (four years ago) link
eno was a massive jerk for abandoning that genre tbrr
― imago, Wednesday, 30 October 2019 17:00 (four years ago) link
ooh look at me i invented ambient
otm
― file of unknown origin (bendy), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 17:03 (four years ago) link
xp have you heard "Wrong Way Up"? also some stuff on "My Squelchy Life" is a bit similar, none of it is as bonkers and multilayered though
― Book Doula (sleeve), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 17:06 (four years ago) link
title track, bitches
― Famous Anus (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 17:24 (four years ago) link
was just thinking about this album yesterday because i was super feeling the lyrics to "mother whale eyeless" his pop songs have more replay value for me than, say, the apollo soundtrack
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Wednesday, 30 October 2019 18:11 (four years ago) link
Not heard xxp! Thanks...
― imago, Wednesday, 30 October 2019 18:14 (four years ago) link